UNITING THE BUILT & NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS

Kongjian Yu, International ASLA, and one of China’s top landscape architects, spoke with ASLA about the environmental crisis facing China, and what landscape architects can do to limit adverse environmental change.

Yu says: “Landscape architecture is now a tool for social justice and environmental stewardship. The battle should now go to China. When Olmsted invented this word and this profession, the major issue was social justice and the recreational needs of the American people. At that time, America was in a process of urbanization. Now, the same thing is happening in China, but more seriously, more severely, because of the environmental issues.”